‘That will take weeks:’ Pfizer CEO views Rocky Mount tornado damage as shortages loom

At best, it will be several weeks before Pfizer can hope to restart its massive facility in Rocky Mount, company CEO Albert Bourla told reporters Friday afternoon at the campus where a devastating tornado struck two days earlier.

The site, which produces nearly 8% of all sterile injectables used in U.S. hospitals, still lacks power as Dominion Energy trucks were on the premises. As engineers continue to assess structural integrity, Pfizer personnel have had limited access to their damaged buildings.

Drone photos from The News & Observer show significant damage to the facility. No employees suffered injuries, company officials say.

“(Restarting) will take weeks even in the absence of structural damages because we need to maintain the sterile nature of this operation,” Bourla said.

For now, Pfizer plans to shift production to its other nine U.S. manufacturing sites, including its 230-acre facility in Sanford. Bourla noted the company has at least six weeks of inventory on which to rely.

He said most of the damage appears to taken place at the campus’s warehouse, which stores raw materials and finished medicines awaiting quality checks. The production facilities, he said, seem to have avoided major wreckage.

But disruptions to the U.S. supply chain still appear unavoidable.

“There are several medicines that are made here exclusively, that are not made otherwise in the Pfizer network,” Bourla said.

Is the U.S. hospital supply chain ‘too dependent?’

Pfizer, the New York-based pharmaceutical giant, manufactured an array of health care products at its 1.4 million-square-foot facility in Nash County, including neuromuscular blockers, anti-infectives and anesthesia. Contrary to some social media posts, the facility did not store COVID-19 vaccines.

Health care experts on Friday predicted the Rocky Mount tornado will strain nationwide supplies.

“In some cases, Pfizer may be the largest and only manufacturer of certain drugs,” said Rob Handfield, a professor of operations and supply chain management, at N.C. State University. “It’s not like there’s a lot of competition for some of these medications. They’re very specific, they’re in small batches, the volume of their usage is very low.”

Handfield anticipates hospital leaders must be strategic to keep their supplies steady. He added that the tornado could expose that the U.S. health care system is “too dependent on single sources for many of our drugs.”

On Thursday, Triangle-area hospital systems said they are bracing for shortages.

UNC Health, which operates a hospital in Nash County, said it is relying on its “diverse supply chain network” to obtain necessary equipment.

“While the tornado damage to the Pfizer facility will likely have some impact across the system, not just Nash, we are working with our vendors to maintain a stable supply of injectables, pharmaceuticals and other supplies,” UNC Health spokesperson Phil Bridges said in an email.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it is “working with the company to understand the extent of the damage and any potential impact to the nation’s drug supply.”

2,250 employees, no injuries

Pfizer employs 3,200 people at the site, which runs 24 hours a day. Company spokesperson Amy Ross said roughly 2,250 employees were working there Wednesday when the tornado hit.

Touching down around 12:30 p.m., the tornado registered as an EF3, according to the National Weather Service, meaning it reached speeds of 150 mph.

Overall, two people have been hospitalized with what are considered life-threatening injuries from Wednesday’s tornado, according to Edgecombe County manager Eric Evans. The condition of the injured couple is improving, ECU Health said Friday.

Rocky Mount is about 50 miles northeast of Raleigh and straddles both Nash and Edgecombe counties.

On Friday, Bourla was joined by more than a dozen public officials, including Attorney General Josh Stein, state Sen. Lisa Barnes and U.S. Rep. Don Davis, who represents northeastern North Carolina.

“The success of our businesses, the success of Pfizer, is crucial to Eastern North Carolina’s future,” Davis said. “We are resilient, and we will help restore this facility as quickly as possible.”